infoTECH News

[October 08, 2012]

EDITORIAL: China's hacking: Don't worry?

Oct 08, 2012 (The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
On the heels of the Obama administration suggesting that the U.S. should "work together" with China to stem cyber crimes comes another account of China hacking, this time directed at the White House Military Office.

The Washington Free Beacon reports that hackers linked to the Chinese government breached the office's network. But an administration official quickly tamped down the report, saying that the "phishing" affected an unclassified network and that there was no evidence that any data had been stolen.

Really Given this administration's disdain for truth and transparency, we have our doubts.

We're talking about a high-security network that, among other things, includes data on presidential communications, travel and the "nuclear football," the device used by the president to communicate with strategic nuclear forces, The Beacon reports. A former senior U.S. intelligence official calls WHMO "the most significant office in the U.S. government."
This latest attack was but one in an unrelenting pattern of China's hacking, most notably targeting Pentagon computers, according to a senior intelligence officer for the U.S. Cyber Command.

But instead of pressing China on computer espionage, the Obama administration plays down a known and nefarious threat, ignoring the burglar in its midst.